Amid Inquiries, Albany Changes Job Practices

By ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Special to the New York Times

Published: October 13, 1987

ALBANY—
Amid indictments and investigations, the New York State Legislature has changed longstanding employment practices that encouraged payroll padding and blurred responsibility for hiring decisions.

The move to alter practices at the legislative commissions - long considered havens for patronage appointees and party workers - comes as the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, begins a new investigation focusing on them.

Probably the most dramatic change has been a drop of almost 30 percent in the last year in employees of the Legislature's 12 temporary commissions, to about 130 from 175. Additionally, each commission payroll has been divided in two so that the chairman and the vice chairman, who are members of different parties and different houses of the Legislature, each has to authorize payment for their own employees.

But interviews with legislators and commission staff members, and an examination of payroll records, show that despite the changes, the commissions are still structured in a way that reflects more concern for their political usefulness than for their productiveness.

Some commissions ''are just an excuse to create a new payroll,'' said one Assembly member, who asked not to be identified. ''Some are created to give a member extra staff.'' Since the legislative commissions are financed separately from the rest of the Legislature's operations, their spending can increase without affecting the size of the legislative budget.

The commissions have also been criticized for outliving their usefulness. While commissions are often established to study current concerns, such as ''critical transportation choices'' and ''dairy industry development,'' no timetable is set for their work, and their appropriation is generally extended without close scrutiny of their efforts.

''It's kind of like nostalgia,'' said Gene Russianoff, a staff lawyer for the New York Public Interest Research Group. ''Years after a problem arises, these commissions are still around.''

Currently, the Legislature allocates about $7 million to its 12 temporary commissions, a fraction of the $157 million allocated to the rest of its operations. In addition to the temporary panels, there are other legislative commissions, such as the Administrative Regulations Review Commission, that are regarded as permanent and have scarcely been affected by the recent changes.

While many legislators were critical of the commissions, none were willing to be quoted by name because, they said, they did not want to offend their colleagues.

Among the commissions' practices that critics cite are these:

* The lack of regular commission meetings, of formal deadlines and of oversight of commission work.

* The lack of contact between members of the majority and minority staffs.

* Legislators' use of staff allotments on commissions to augment their own office staffs with people who do little or no commission work.

* The pairing of legislative commissions; for each commission formed that is headed by a member of the Senate's Republican majority, one is created to be led by a member of the Assembly's Democratic majority. A Good Illustration

Perhaps the best illustration of how the commissions have traditionally operated is a look at one that has recently been restructured; the Legislative Commission on Public-Private Cooperation.

In 1986, that commission, which is headed by Senator Roy M. Goodman, Republican of Manhattan, had a budget of $425,000. In September 1986, at the height of an election campaign, it had 17 people on its payroll, including Mr. Goodman's press secretary and a woman who, according to Mr. Ohrenstein's indictment, was working full-time on a campaign in Rochester.

This year, with no staff members assigned to Mr. Goodman's commission by the Democrats and with staff members who work primarily for Mr. Goodman reassigned to his Senate payroll, the commission's staff has been reduced to three, and its budget to $175,000.

While the changes appear to reflect concerns that have been raised by the investigations, Mr. Goodman said he had planned the changes before he learned of the inquiries. He said the budget and staff changes were made at his request. And while many of his staff members worked both in his Senate office and for the commission, Mr. Goodman said, ''It was my judgment that a press secretary's function was best allocated to one payroll rather than the other.''

Each commission has about eight legislators, who receive no salary for participating, as members. An Obscure Purpose

Precisely what function the commissions are supposed to serve - as distinct from the standing legislative committees - is obscure even to many legislators, who, in private, often speak disparagingly of them.

Despite their frequent criticisms of the commissions, however, most legislators agree that at least some of them serve a useful purpose, with the commitment of the commission staff often the deciding variable. ''They're totally unnecessary, but some of them are very good,'' said a former legislative staff member.

Each year, the commissions hold dozens of public hearings, issue scores of reports and conduct research on subjects as varied as cable television and seat belt use.